One of the most watched events in the gaming industry this year is the impending sale of EA to an investment consortium led by Saudi Arabia for $55 billion.The deal could set off ripple effects throughout the industry, and now Take-Two Interactive Software president Strauss Zelnick has expressed his views on the matter.

During Take-Two's latest earnings call, Zelnick said he was "uncertain" how the competitive market would change if EA did go private.One analyst noted that this would make Take-Two the last publicly traded company in the U.S. video game industry.

Some people speculate that EA's privatization may bring benefits to Take-Two, but Zelnick is not willing to draw this conclusion easily.

"We're always in awe. I always say hubris is the enemy of continued success. I do think we're in a great position right now - the financial performance of the company is well ahead of expectations, and that's because our creative performance is also exceeding expectations, which has always been a core strength of ours," he said. "If we can maintain this momentum, the future will be bright. In fact, as of the end of the year, our leverage is extremely low."

In an interview, Zelnick said that EA's privatization may indeed allow Take-Two to "gain some space at the competitive level," but this is still unclear.

"We wish our competitors all the best. A healthy industry requires strong players, not just one dominant player. Therefore, the competitive landscape may change slightly or not at all. No matter what, we must do our job - creating the best entertainment content in the world."

The news of EA's sale to the Saudi Public Investment Fund, Affinity Partners Fund and Silver Lake Capital is only at the announcement level. The transaction has not yet been completed and is not expected to be officially delivered until 2026.

The most watched announcement in Take-Two’s financial report is that Rockstar’s GTA 6 has been postponed again.The game was originally planned to be released in the fall of 2025, then postponed to May 2026, and now it has been postponed to November 2026."We know that everyone has been waiting for a long time, and we are deeply sorry for extending the release time again, but these additional months will allow us to complete the game polishing according to the high standards that everyone expects and deserves." Rockstar said.

Rockstar has also been embroiled in controversy recently, with the studio firing dozens of employees for "serious misconduct."Rockstar claimed that these employees had leaked company secrets, but a labor union said this was pure nonsense and that the real reason the affected employees were fired was because they were trying to form a union.